AutoBeta(AutoBeta.net)04/09 Report--

The sudden COVID-19 epidemic has disrupted the operation rhythm of automobile manufacturers, and the spread of the international epidemic has brought a tremendous impact on the production of the global automobile industry. Japan's big three automakers Toyota, Honda and Nissan are expected to cut the wages of 32000 North American workers to join the government's unemployment relief program, Bloomberg reported.

For Japanese car companies, the blow brought by the fall of the American market caused by COVID-19 is enormous. It is understood that the sales volume of the three Japanese car companies in the North American market occupies a very important position in their global market, and the American market is the most important.

Toyota extended the shutdown of all its car and parts plants in Canada, Mexico and the United States for the third time, citing a worsening epidemic and falling demand, and Toyota plans to resume production on May 4.

Toyota will continue to pay full-time production workers, but plans to temporarily stop paying 5000 employees offered by outside agencies. The impact of the epidemic on Toyota is huge. In order to guard against the long-term impact of the novel coronavirus epidemic on sales and performance, Toyota has sought a total credit line of 1 trillion yen from Sumitomo Mitsui Bank and Mitsubishi UFJ Bank.

Honda and Nissan, two other Japanese manufacturers, will temporarily stop paying wages to all workers at U. S. factories and require them to apply for state unemployment benefits.

Affected by the epidemic, Nissan suspended production at its US plants since March 20 and had planned to resume production on April 6. In view of the lack of effective prevention and control of the epidemic in the United States, Nissan was forced to close its US plant until the end of April. Nissan announced on April 7 that it would temporarily lay off 10000 American workers. in response to the layoffs, Nissan said all temporarily laid-off employees would return to work after Nissan went into production. Nissan requires employees who are on temporary leave to apply for unemployment benefits from the government at least until April 27. At the same time, these employees will retain their benefits during their work (including medical care). In addition, according to Japanese media reports, Nissan is seeking a 500 billion yen credit facility from the bank.

Honda employs about 18400 workers at its plants in Alabama, Indiana and Ohio. Honda initially announced the closure of some plants in North America on March 18 and initially planned to resume work on March 31. As the epidemic spread, Honda recently announced that it would extend its factory shutdown to May 1, extending the shutdown to 17 North American plants.

Honda also announced the temporary layoff of 10000 American workers on April 7. Honda has paid full wages to its employees, but the carmaker will stop paying wages from Sunday. Honda did not comment on the job cuts.

In addition to the above three Japanese car companies, including FCA, Ford, GM, Tesla, Mercedes-Benz, BMW and other car companies are facing the plight of resuming work and production and cash flow emergency. At present, major automakers are using layoffs and credit to reduce the risk of the epidemic, ensuring that there is enough cash to maintain the next operation.

According to real-time epidemic data from Johns Hopkins University in the United States, as of 8: 00 a.m. Beijing time on April 9, COVID-19 in the United States had a total of 430376 confirmed cases. At present, the United States has the largest cumulative number of confirmed cases in the world. Affected by the outbreak in the United States, three Japanese car companies' sales in the United States fell in the first quarter, while Toyota, Honda and Nissan's sales in the United States fell 8.8%, 19% and 30% respectively.

Welcome to subscribe to the WeChat public account "Automotive Industry Focus" to get the first-hand insider information on the automotive industry and talk about things in the automotive circle. Welcome to break the news! WeChat ID autoWechat